THE WICKED KING BY HOLLY BLACK - BOOK REVIEW

I was a little bit hesitant about this one because I had some problems with book one and, while I was curious to see how they were handled in this book, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue the series. That being said, I didn't mind this book and am interested to see how everything comes together.

Hello everyone!

I am back with another book review, The Wicked King by Holly Black. Thanks so much to Hachette Book Group Canada for sending me an ARC of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.



This book picks up pretty close to where the first one left off. Oak and Viviene are back in the mortal world and Jude is controlling Cardan as the High King of Elfhame. I won't go into too many more details because I don't want to spoil anything.

First and foremost, my main concern with this book was the relationship between Cardan and Jude. I had a lot of problems with it in the first book, mainly Cardan's behaviour toward Jude and the fact that neither one of them seems particularly romantically interested in the other beyond their ability to use the other for gaining power. There were some moments where their relationship seemed to be developing outside of this toxicity and hatred, but then it would all come crashing down again. Aside from pure hatred, I'm having a hard time feeling a lot of emotions and chemistry between these two. And it's more than just an enemies-to-lovers situation, they both, but particularly Cardan, genuinely seems to hate one another. This makes for a clunky romance that only really stands to advance the plot and deceitfulness of the characters.

I thought the plot was ok, there is definitely a lot going on throughout the story. We see more of the Undersea world and its issues with Elfhame through the various plot points of the book. Beyond Cardan and Jude's relationship and the issues with Oak and succession that we saw in book one, the only real addition is with Taryn's wedding, which we miss most of anyways.

Maybe I'm just seeing problems where there aren't any, but it seems to me the majority of readers really enjoy this book and series. And I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it - I wouldn't have finished it if I didn't enjoy it enough to do so - I just wish things would have been different.

Overall, I'm interested to see what book three holds, there was a lot going on at the ending of this book and if the title of the next one is any indication, it should be an interesting ride.